Description

This paper describes what we call “the primal hypotheses,” which assert positive relationships between the legislated wilderness attributes of naturalness and solitude and three broad constructs that embrace human benefits from wilderness experience reported in the literature—“development of self” (DOS), “development of community” (DOC) and “spiritual development” (SD). These hypotheses support the notion that managing wilderness for naturalness and solitude will generate wilderness experience benefits for people, in addition to meeting a legal mandate for wilderness protection. We find the hypotheses generally supported by studies reported in the literature on wilderness experience and by a limited test using data from three wilderness experience programs.